IN

N the number of the Christian Observer for April last (p. 206) I have given a short account of this martyred prelate, together with at declaration of his faith respecting the CHURCH and JUSTIFICATION, and to these I beg to refer the reader.

Some farther particulars respect ing his character may be necessary, in order to give the due weight to his testimony. For, who appears to For, who appears to have known him personally, states him to have been an eloquent preacher, earnest in his doctrine, perfect in the Scriptures, and indefatigably laborious; and that his Sermons were usually directed to the correction of sin, the exposure of the iniquity of the world, and the corrupt abuses of the Church. "His life," he adds, "was so pure and good, that no kind of slander (although divers went about to reprove it) could fasten any fault upon him." As a bishop,

SO

careful was he in his cure, that he left neither pains untaken, nor ways unsought, how to train up the flock of Christ in the true word of salvation, continually labouring in the same." Hooper" abhorred nothing more than gain, labouring, always to save and preserve the souls of his flock. No father in his household, no gardener in his garden, nor husbandman in his vineyard, was more occupied than he in his diocese amongst his flock, going about his towns and villages in teaching and preaching to the peoCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 59.

ple there." But "though he be stowed the most part of his care upon the public flock of Christ, for the which also He spent his blood, yet there lacked no provision in him to bring up his children in learning and good manners." Every where he kept one religion in one uniform doctrine and integrity: so that if you entered into the bishop's palace, you would suppose yourself to have entered into some church or temple. In every corner thereof there was some smell of virtue, good example, honest conversation, and reading of Holy Scriptures. There was not to be seen in his house any rioting or idleness; no pomp at all, no dishonest word, no swearing could there be heard. As for the revenues of both his bishop-. rics (Gloucester and Worcester) he pursed nothing, but bestowed it in hospitality." ""Every day his manner was to have to dinner a certain number of poor folk by course, who were served by four at a mess, with whole and wholesome meat; and when they were served, being before examined by him or his deputies, of the Lord's prayer, the articles of their faith, and the ten commandments, then he himself sat down to dinuer, and not before."

There is however a circumstance to be mentioned of this prelate, which will detract in the judgment of many from the weight of his authority: I mean that he should have been so pertinaciously opposed 4 R

to the use of the appointed form for the consecration of bishops, and of the dress which it was then customary for bishops to wear. And surely, whatever credit may be given him for tenderness of conscience on these points, it will not be contended that they form grounds on which men of enlarged minds and sound understandings would now think it right to hazard the peace and unity of the Church. Hooper probably did not foresee the effect of his own scrupulosity: he may be considered as the father of puritanism; in other words, of nonconformity.

Hooper has left little behind him, besides what has been noticed in a former number of these sketches, from which his views on contested subjects of theology can be deduced with any precision. A few extracts, however, from such of his sayings and letters as are preserved by Fox, will serve to shew the complexion of his sentiments, and the general spirit of his religion.

To one who endeavoured to prevail upon him to recant, in order to save his life, he replied, "Death indeed is bitter, and life is sweet: but, alas, consider that the death to come is more bitter, and the life to come is more sweet. Therefore for the desire and love I have to the one, and the terror and fear of the other, I do not so much regard this death, nor esteem this life, but have settled myself, through the strength of God's holy spirit, patiently to pass through the torment and extremities of the fire now prepared for me, rather than to deny the truth of his word, desiring you and others, in the mean time, to commend me to God's mercy in your prayers."

In a letter sent to his wife, soon after his apprehension, he thus writes, "Our Saviour Christ saw that the greatest part of the people would contemn and neglect whatsoever true doctrine and godly ways should be shewed unto them, or else

receive and use it without any profit to their souls at all, not caring whether they lived as they were commanded by God's word or not; but would think it sufficient to be count ed to have the name of Christian." "And as these men wilfully and voluntarily reject the word of God, even so God most justly delivereth them into that blindness of mind, and hardness of heart, that they cannot understand, nor yet consent to any thing that God would have preached, and set forth to his own glory, after his own will and word: wherefore they hate it mortally, and of all things most detest God's holy word. And as they cannot, nor will not come to Christ, to be instructed by his holy word, even so can they not abide any other man to be a Christian man, and to lead his life after the word of God, but hate him, persecute him, rob him, imprison him, yea and kill him, if God suffer it." "But let God's adversaries do what they list; whether they take life or take it not, they can do us no hurt for their cruelty hath no farther power than God permitteth them; and that which cometh unto us by the will of our heavenly Father can be no harm, but rather gain, wealth, and felicity. That the spirit of man may feel these consolations, the giver of them must be prayed unto for the merits of Christ's passion: for it is not the nature of man that can be contented, until it be rege nerated and possessed with God's spirit, to bear patiently the troubles of the mind or of the body. When the mind and heart of a man seeth on every side sorrow and heaviness, and the worldly eye beholdeth nothing but such things as be troublous, and wholly bent to rob the poor of that he hath, and also to take from him his life: except the man weigh these brittle and uncertain treasures that be taken from him, with the riches of the life to come; and this life of the body with the life in Christ's blood; and

now given, viz. that the love of money is productive of all sorts of evil. M. T. H.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I UNDERSTAND that the use of the word Xepolovσavles by St. Luke, in Acts XIV. 23, is urged by some of our dissenting brethren, as an argument to prove the appointment of ministers to have been by the suffrages of the people, signified (as the original word, they contend, denotes) by the extension of the hand. That Xapolovew might originally have this signification, I am not inclined to doubt: but, as Dr. Doddridge allows, Hammond has learnedly shewn that the word in some cases signifies to constitute or appoint to an office, where there could be no voting at all. And it is remarkable enough that the only passage in St. Luke's writings, besides that under consideration, where the word or its compound occurs, is precisely of this description. It is in a case, where there could not be any suffrage at all. I refer to Acts x. 41, where the risen Saviour is declared to have been openly shewn, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before of God, προκεχειροτονημένοις ύπο το Θεό. If then an author's meaning in the use of a word in any passage is to be determined by the sense in which the same author uses it elsewhere, the argument of those who dissent from us is no longer supportable by reference to the Greek verb. Indeed to pronounce on the meaning of words from their original derivation exclusively, is but a fallible mode of criticism: they often acquire, in process of time, a different acceptation. The word anecdote, in our own language, meant originally, according to its derivation," something yet unpublished." "Secret History." See Johnson's Dictionary. But we now use it in a more extended sense, as denoting any biographical incident;" so that it is deemed no solecism

to speak of a well known anecdote. The observation will apply probably to many words in all languages, as I conceive it does to χειροτονεω. M.T. H.

THE same passage of Scripture on which M. T. H. has commented, forms the subject of the following communication.

For the Christian Observer.

ON ACTS xiv. 23.

THERE IS, perhaps, scarcely any error into which some interpreters of the original Scriptures have more repeatedly fallen, than that of paying an excessive, I had almost said superstitious, regard to the etymology of words. If the word be simple, they deduce its meaning from the first sense of the primitive: if compound, their interpretation is merely the combined senses of the com ponent parts. Now in ascertaining the precise meaning of any derived word, particular attention should be given to the manners, customs, laws, and learning of the people, to whose language it belongs. In designating the judicial, religious, and ceremonial observances of a nation, it was sometimes found necessary, for the sake of accuracy, to invent a word, expressing the peculiar forms therein adopted. Nor is this precision of language confined to religious and political distinctions, but many national peculiarities, resulting from the local situation, or various existing circumstances of a people, require an appropriate cha racteristic word. Such terms were gradually changed from their pri mary signification, and applied, less strictly, to the simple procedure or observance, or to a practice more or less analogous to it, sometimes indeed resembling it only in some principal feature. With some words of this description, their first acceptation was altogether lost; with others, while their main import remained, the peculiarities they indi